Greek all female synth duo Marsheaux has
been a revered musical outlet since its inception in 2003. There is something
very unique about them which is especially true considering that they have recorded
quite a number of cover versions of iconic electronic music gems.
Now they have re-worked an entire album:
Depeche Mode’s 1982 album “A broken frame”.
Apart from its award-winning cover, A broken
frame was nowhere near its predecessor Speak & Spell. Shortly
after the aformementioned S+S album their main songwriter Vince Clarke had left
to subsequently enrich the world with his creations Yazoo, The Assembly and,
most notably, Erasure, who are celebrating their 30th anniversary
this year.
In 82 Depeche had to find their feet musically
and, although there are some hidden gems on A broken frame , it is not
one of their better ones and, in retrospect, gives little indication that
Depeche Mode would one day become the cultural phenomenon that they are today.
So, perhaps an overhaul was long overdue –
Marsheaux certainly gave it new life (no pun intended) as they put a 21st
century stamp on the songs.
We put five questions to Marianthi Melitsi and
Sophie Sarigiannidou aka Marsheaux and here is their response:
1) what
prompted you to record your own version of Depeche Mode's 'A broken frame' ?
We love
this album a lot. We like its melancholic and romantic mood. We strongly
believe that it’s a really dark album and of course, it’s the most underrated of
all of their albums although all the tracks are little diamonds. All Depeche
mode fans think the same way. We did a lot of covers in the past but that was a
bit different. We wanted to cover an entire album, even the artwork. Someone
told us that we moved the standards for tribute albums very high and that was
the best compliment we got.
2) If you
could freely pick, what band would you love to tour with?
Not easy to
answer.... There are too many.... But Sparks comes first in mind, Orchestral
Manoeuvres In The dark of course, Mylene Farmer and Erasure and may many more.
3) what is
the best thing about being in marsheaux?
That we do
music, music that we love. Another good thing is that we turned our hobby into
a profession, and that we have the time to work on our music. We travel the
world, we meet people. We' ve met most of our heroes and with some of them we
have collaborated. We are really happy with what we do.
4) what was
your best selling album to date?
The German
edition of Peek A Boo. Lumineux Noir was also a big seller for our greek
company Undo Records.
5) what do
you think of electro pioneers Kraftwerk?
We always
say that Depeche Mode are the princes and Kraftwerk are the kings of electronic
music. They transformed electronic music and gave it the today’s shape.
Kraftwerk's distinctive sound was revolutionary, and has directly influenced
all the electronic acts that followed (and not only). We red somewhere that
Kraftwerk might be "the most influential group in pop history" and we
totally agree. RESPECT! Also we strongly believe that Ralf and Florian were
extraterrestrials. Karl and Wolfgang were just their ambassadors, their link
with us. We believe the same for ABBA as well. All these cant be human. Its impossible!